Coach Overturns on Britain’s M40 in Thick Fog

A coach has veered off a motorway slip road and crashed in thick fog. Seventeen people have been hurt.

The Oxford Bus Company coach crashed on the M40 slip road near Thane at 2.45am local time. It has been described as a major incident due to the number of patients involved by the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

Currently, barrier repairs and accident investigations are being carried out at the crash site.

A spokesman for the SCAS stated the thick fog conditions presented challenges to treating patients. He said, “The male coach driver and 16 adult passengers had sustained a variety of injuries, such as cuts, bruises and broken bones.

“All 17 patients were taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

“At the scene we had six ambulances, a rapid response vehicle, three ambulance officers and the trust’s hazardous area response team.”

“The investigation is ongoing and is squarely in the hands of Thames Valley Police.”

The freezing fog conditions are set to last until this afternoon local time. Poor visibility on some of Britain’s busiest roads is to be expected.

Mr Clarke went on to say, “The M40 goes through several altitude changes where you dip into the valleys and up again and some areas can be more prevalent to fog, so you can be driving along nice and clear at one point and then hit steady fog banks.

“We’ve got some really tricky weather conditions this week, it has been quite changeable.

“We have had real thick patches of fog in different areas with freezing temperatures which lead to these slippery conditions.”

On Wednesday a woman was killed and several others injured when a pileup occurred due to poor visibility and thick fog conditions.